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populism

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." This quote, which has often been misattributed to Sinclair Lewis, is wise in its recognizing the authoritarian potential of both nationalism and organized religion. In slight contrast, Professor Halford E. Luccock of the Divinity School of Yale University said in a 1938 interview , "When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled 'made in Germany'; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, 'Americanism.'" Luccock's view was that of a Christian theologian during the height of Nazi Germany, likely meant to not only downplay the role of religion but perhaps more so warn against the false idolatry of nationalistic reverence.

Against the backdrop of a global surge of crude populism that has overturned the hope of change announced by the Arab Spring of only six years ago with a dizzyingly swift rightwards rush that sees several brands of a neo-fascist “rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouching towards Bethlehem to be born,” in the words of Irish poet William Butler Yeats, a strange phenomenon has emerged: “anarcho-populism”.

Last Thursday night, Socialist Alternative and other left-wing and progressive nonprofits and political parties (Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, Students for a Democratic Society, and more) held a demonstration to protest the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. The crowd was huge, bigger than any march I’ve seen in Minneapolis in a while. In fact, the last time I saw a crowd this big it was the march put on by what would eventually become Black Lives Matter the day after a grand jury announced its decision to not prosecute Darren Wilson for the murder of Mike Brown.